Girl Turns 40: #22. Birthday "Girl" in L.A.

Did you know that most people can tell you exactly what they did on their 40th birthday? Like all major b-days (21, 30, 40...comes to mind), we all tend to put enormous pressure on ourselves to have great events with even better memories of those events. During my soul-searching of what exactly I wanted to do for my birthday, I started to query various friends/coworkers, etc.

Here's a little sample:

- Dinner party with closest friends (about 12 people) and had it catered, so no work! (Very nice...)
- Went camping with the family, and had to drive to the campground store for birthday items - even the cake! (Uh oh.)
- Went to Baltimore to see the Red Sox (Cool.)
- Rented out a restaurant for family and friends (Very cool.)
- Visited New York with my best girlfriends (Now we're talkin.)
- Went to South Beach (Oh my.)

So, after much deliberation I decided to celebrate my birthday in Hermosa Beach, California...one of my favorite places. I planned this trip for months, as now I live in North Carolina and didn't want to spend my 40th birthday bellied up to the bar at Bridges BBQ. Not that I don't enjoy being bellied to bar with a BBQ sandwich (western NC-style, of course) but it's kind of everyday fare, if-you-know-what-I-mean.

My best friends all still live in California, and I decided this was the BEST way to ring in this milestone birthday, plus get some advice about whether or not this blogging thing was a good idea. My birthday party was to be held at the beach, during the last concert-on-the-beach series that Hermosa Beach typically sponsors each year.

I celebrated my 40th on the beach at the concert, with some of my BEST friends.